This 1/8 scale Madoka Kaname (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) figure was released by Good Smile Company back in January. I don’t think Madoka needs any introductions, but if this posts survives for 10 years and someone then is reading this, Madoka is a 14-year-old girl who becomes a magical girl in order to protect the world from beings called witches. Madoka was sculpted by Kohata Takahiro, stands about 19 cm tall, and retails for 7800 Yen.

Overall Pose and Sculpt

The creators at GSC decided to make Madoka in her magical girl outfit despite the fact that she hardly ever appears in it in the anime. Her running pose isn’t too eye-catching, but it’s better than having her stand around looking pretty.

One of the great things about this figure is that it matches her character design perfectly. After reviewing some official Puella Magi Madoka Magica artwork, I could not find any discrepancies between the figure and the artwork.

The multi-layered skirt and the heart on Madoka’s backside were also included.

Her weight isn’t centered above her leg, but since it’s not too far off, I don’t think there will be any problems with leaning.

Madoka comes with exchangeable arms and hands so that you can give her her bow and put Kyubey on her arm. One complaint I had regarding the accessories was that it was hard trying to get her bow into her hand. I had to bend her fingers out in order to get the bow in, which made me nervous because I didn’t want to break it. The bow also does not have a string attached to it

Face

I’m sure anyone who has seen Puella Magi Madoka Magica will have noticed the unique art style and character designs. With Ume Aoki in charge of the character designs, they all ended up with her trademark wide faces, big eyes, and general baby-look. GSC’s Madoka managed to reproduce that same look in 3D on this figure. Not only did they get things like the wide face, but they even have the shade lines in the top half of Madoka’s irises that are found in Ume Aoki’s drawings.

Paint Job

The paint job on Madoka is near-perfect. Take a look at the following picture for example. Each of those vertical brown lines are thinner than the millimeter ticks on a ruler, but they’re still smooth and relatively straight.

Unfortunately, there is one defect that I would like to point out in the above picture. Just underneath Madoka’s left breast, you’ll notice a small bump. There is an outline of Madoka’s ribcage which you can’t see from this angle with the lighting I used, but this bump doesn’t seem to be a part of it. Since I don’t have a second figure for reference, I can’t tell if it’s a manufacturing defect or a sculpting defect. It’s only noticeable with light is shone on it at an angle.

Another area showing off the great painting on this figure is at the ends of Madoka’s skirt. The flower petal design is perfect and the red outline is smooth. There is also a colour gradient from a peachy-pink to creamy-white as you move outwards to the edge.

The frills on Madoka’s skirt are shaded in order to give the appearance of shadows when there are none.

Fine Details

My favourite aspect about this Madoka figure is the Kyubey that rests on her arm. He/She/It looks cute and is also well-sculpted.

The jewels in Madoka’s bow are diamond-shaped and it looks like the bow was formed around them.

Madoka’s soul gem necklace is less impressive, looking more like a blob than a gem. I found it weird that it was just sitting there at first, but looking at the artwork, her soul gem really isn’t being held by any type of string/chain or attached to her collar.

Here’s a closer look at some of the other frills on Madoka’s outfit. Yes, I think her designer went overboard with the frills, and I’m impressed that the sculptor included them all.

There are five layers to Madoka’s skirt and they all seem to be individually sculpted rather than making the outlines out of a big lump of clay.

The final details to really look at are Madoka’s shoes and the base. As with the rest of the figure, the shoes matched Madoka’s character design perfectly. The base is a bit nicer than a plain solid-colour one, but remains rather boring. It’s small and does its job though, which is all that matters.

Overall

Madoka’s pose may be average, but in terms of quality, this figure is top-notch. The painting and sculpting are as good as it gets, and with the exception of the bump under Madoka’s left breast, I think it’s flawless. In my opinion, Madoka was worth every yen. To wrap things up, here is one last shot with my first successful attempt at a pure black background.

She’s beautiful! I’m sad I don’t have space for any of the larger figures (at least not yet).

I didn’t even realize how many frills there were in her dress! That’s pretty amazing. Her face does look a bit odd at certain angles (like in the third picture of the review) because it looks really flat, but considering the art-style of this series, sculpting a figure this nice is a pretty big feat already.

I really like figures with such girly outfits *frill power* ^-^
It is such a beautiful design, the colors, the shape and especially her red shoes are so nice.

Judging from your pictures she looks best from the right side and from behind. From the left side her face looks a bit weird like that, aside from that I think that she’s a super cute figure in an awesome magical girl dress, really adorable.

The way Kyubey is hanging from her arm, you could get the impression that he’s a good “dog”

The details on the layers of skirt is remarkable. And the details in her top is great too. I really like the proportions of Madoka in this… Very fitting of her. Nice review!Yi recently posted..Fashionable Nudity in Mawaru Penguindrum

I’ve still not seen Puella Magi Madoka Magica, although I’m probably going to wait for the final DVD/Blu-ray in the US to be released and pick them up.

GSC have done a good job of not making her facial shape odd looking. As you say characters from Madoka have unusual shaped faces, which could potentially look odd (Beach Queen Madoka *cough*) in figure form. The frills of her dress are nicely done, and her one legged pose is cute too.

Isn’t there an action based Madoka by GSC in the works too? Do you plan on picking up that one or even any of the other characters GSC are making figures of? I quite liked the character design of the black haired one, Homura I believe, but I really know nothing about her.

GSC is also making an Ultimate Madoka, which I won’t explain to you unless you want me to spoil the series. I’m planning on getting that one as well as all of the other characters from the series. I’ll have the whole set once they’re released :)